


Never Leave Again

by lightthornn



Category: Keeper of the Lost Cities Series - Shannon Messenger
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, First Kiss, Meeting, Reunions, ansgt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-13 06:54:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28774164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lightthornn/pseuds/lightthornn
Summary: Keefe was never supposed to see those brown eyes again.
Relationships: Sophie Foster/Keefe Sencen
Comments: 4
Kudos: 40





	Never Leave Again

The Forbidden Cities were loud and crowded, and the air was horrible. Keefe had been living there for the past four years now, but he would never forget how much clearer the air was when he had been in the Lost Cities. And even though he had figured out how to control his power a year into his stay, he had never gone back, and he was certain that he never would. 

He moved his coffee cup to one hand, reaching into his bag for his phone with the other. He couldn't remember what time he worked that day. After finding a job at a local office as an intern, life had gotten much easier than he thought it could be. He had an apartment, and there were even a few people who he might call friends. 

Of course, nobody could measure up to the friends he had left behind. Brown eyes and stubborn ways, teasing glares from two separate sets of shining teal eyes, gadgets and pranking plans, water over his head and mist in the air, insults that neither of them meant. 

In his bag, his hand grazed over the imparter and leaping crystal that he brought everywhere with him. Since the day he had left, he had never let them out of his sight, knowing that at any moment, Grady might call, that they might need him. That _she_ might need him. He couldn't bear the chance of missing out on her.

At first, she had tried to reach out to his mind, and he had buried his head in a pile of pillows, begging for her to leave him alone, but he never acknowledged her. It went on for months, her voice pleading for him to come back. She would give him updates on what had happened, and he had been so close to replying to her when he found out that Dex had been injured, when she begged him to come back in case he didn't make it. He never found out what happened to Dex, and he never heard her voice in his head again unless he was dreaming. 

Grady had never hailed him, and Keefe had no idea what had happened in the Lost Cities for the past four years. For all he knew, the goblins were in charge and had all the elves in prison. 

The streets were crowded that day, he was pretty sure that there was a festival of some kind that weekend, bringing much more people to the city than usual.

Keefe froze when he saw a blonde ponytail among the crowd. 

_She doesn't wear her hair up._ He reminded himself, trying to tear his eyes away. But he couldn't. and he hated that he couldn't forget her, when she had surely forgotten him by now. Things had always been unrequited with her though. 

Then the girl turned, and he was certain that his heart had just stopped. He knew those eyes that he would never not see when he closed his own, and the lips that he had thought about too many times. Just like he knew the worried expression on her face when her eyes landed on him. 

He turned and ran, not caring who he ran into. She was never supposed to see him again, certainly not here, where he was dressed in human clothes, jeans and a sweater, and he couldn't let her catch up to him, because he knew that the second she was in front of him, he would lose all sense of control that he might still have. 

His apartment was nearby, and he took off in that direction, not risking even the slightest glance over his shoulder as he flung the door open, closing it behind him.

But she had been training, and she caught his apartment door when he opened it, breathing heavily and staring at him. 

His chest deflated as he smiled sadly at her. "Hey Foster," he said. 

Her emotions were so strong- he had almost forgotten when he was hit by a blow of sadness, anger, hope, relief... and something else that he couldn't put a name on, maybe because he didn't want to hope for things that couldn't be true. 

Sophie looked older- which made sense, but she had been stuck the way she looked the last time he saw her for four years now. Her features had sharpened, and she had grown into them more, her hair had been cut to her shoulders, the same length it had been when he had met her for the very first time after skipping a class. 

"You might as well come in," Keefe said, stepping aside. "You're not going to just walk away." 

She nodded and walked into the place he called home. It was small, and most of the furniture didn't match well. She would know all of the gadgets that he had been confused about when he had first arrived. 

"You drew us," Sophie noted, and his breath caught in his throat just from her voice. Four years didn't get rid of love, he supposed. 

His gaze followed hers, where a wall was covered in drawings of the Lost Cities. The buildings, the trees, the panakes, and his friends, all smiling. He was sure that it was one of the only things that kept him sane while he was struggling just to get through the day, wondering if everyone he loved was okay. 

"I did," he said, voice shaking. "I missed you guys." 

"Then why did you leave?" Sophie asked, the fire he knew leaking into her tone. "You left. And everyone was so confused. And then we had to fight your own mom without you. Do you know how hard that was? I had to look her in the eyes and tell her I had no idea where you were, and she believed me. She tried looking for you, and so did we. But we had to stop, and the Black Swan told us to pretend you didn't matter even though to me, you were the only thing that mattered. Fitz was furious. He cried and he threw things, and he was the one to finally take your mom down. Tam was even upset, Keefe. Tam. He said that it was his fault, and we were terrified he would break. And then Dex, he cried because you asked him to make you an ability restrictor, and he was certain it was his fault, and he made one. It's sitting in his room, and he said he's waiting for the day tou come back. Biana... Biana cried a lot. She said she never thought you would leave like this. And Linh was sad, but she was better at hiding it. Alden and Della never stopped looking for you. They risked everything, but you're too good at hiding."

Keefe winced with her words. There had been many times when he had tried to imagine what had happened to all of them, and he had hoped that they would be okay in the end, because he knew them, and they had to be okay because they were strong. "And you?" He asked, not sure he wanted to know the answer. 

Sophie took a deep breath. "You leaving was the worst day of my life. I thought that when you joined the Neverseen, it hurt. But this hurt more. You left only a letter, just saying that it was better for everyone for you to be gone. How long is it going to take before you realize that we all need you? _I_ needed you, and I did every day that you were gone. Meetings were depressing, there was nobody there to make jokes, and there was nobody to make me blush as much as possible, nobody to tease me and Fitz about staring into each other's eyes, and nobody to protest against reading books when Forkle makes us. But most of all, I missed you, my friend. I missed you more than anything, and I couldn't talk about it because there was so much that needed to be done. I missed the Keefe who I had window slumber parties with, and the one who I knew would never hate me, even if I worried about it all the time. You were always there for me, and I never noticed how much I leaned on you until you were gone. I hate that I didn't notice for so long, because you deserved to know that I knew. I missed every part of you, the joking side, and the deep side you never wanted to show anyone," 

"Fost-" He started to say, his heart breaking when he saw tears in her eyes, but she cut him off and kept talking. 

"You were supposed to be there until the end, Keefe. You were supposed to be there when we won! You were supposed to laugh and shout and hug me and tell me that you always knew we could do it. But that was three years ago and you never came back, and I started to think you never would, when you were the one thing I could always count on. When it felt like Fitz had stomped on my heart, breaking it into a million pieces, you were still there, and even though you should've been happy, you told me you were sorry, even though it was nothing you could've done. And it was too late by the time I realized that I was in love with you because you were gone!" Her last words almost broke off, but she managed to spit them out. 

Love. 

Keefe was sure he was dreaming. Sophie shouldn't be there, and she shouldn't be telling him that she was in love with him, because he didn't see how that was even possible. Sophie had always liked Fitz, and he had known that for so long, had never had any hope except for that small snippet that he saw when Lumenaria fell. 

"And then I looked at your letter which you signed with love, and I couldn't do anything about it." Sophie whispered. 

"Sophie," Keefe said. "I'm sorry. I-I was scared. I had to go. I couldn't bear hurting any of you. Or you, even." 

"We could've helped you. That's what we do."

He shook his head. "I couldn't have been helped. You know that." 

"No, Keefe. I don't know that. I don't know that you could've been helped because you never even gave me the chance to try." 

His mouth opened, but he couldn't find the right words. 

"I found your golden notebook. And the memories that you drew." 

Fear prickled his skin, even though she had just told him that she loved him, she wasn't supposed to see those. "I'm sorry." 

"Why would you be sorry?" 

He shrugged. "I should've told you. You deserved to have someone tell you they loved you." 

"Look at me." she said, taking a step forward, and he only saw the briefest flash of her eyes before she was kissing him. 

And it was angry and it was fire, but it was everything and more than he had ever imagine as he kissed her back, one hand cupping her face while the other went to her waist, and she had her hands in his hair and he didn't even care if she messed it up, because this was Sophie, and she could kill him and he would still love her more than he loved pranking people, or joking around, because it was impossible to not love your entire world. 

She pulled away slightly. "Never leave again. Promise me." 

"I promise, Foster," he said, and it wasn't even a little bit of a lie. 


End file.
